Solid Second For Terol In 125cc Le Mans Race
A cold morning greeted the 125cc riders at Le Mans, with temperatures of 14º on track for their 11am race start. It was another successful contest for Spanish riders, with a podium consisting of Viñales, Terol and Vázquez. An early breakaway for Terol was thwarted by the eventual racewinner, who made the definitive pass on the final lap.
BANKIA Aspar’s Nico Terol had an almost perfect weekend, in which only a win was lacking for the Spaniard. Terol led the race and set the pace in France, chasing win number four from as many races. He clocked the fastest lap of the 125cc field on lap nine, (1’44.083) but Viñales stuck with him and took advantage of the tiniest of mistakes the final time around. Terol maintains the leadership of the overall standings by 36 points, improving his advantage over the second placed rider.
Héctor Faubel got back into the swing of things with a competitive race, despite a poor start. The former series runner-up made an excellent comeback through the field, but los time with five laps to go when he collided with another rider. His fourth place was creditable in the face of such setbacks.
Adrián Martín got off to a good start, but had some grip problems that lost him positions and meant that he could not trouble the top ten.
2nd Nico Terol:
“I took things calmly on the opening laps, because the track was cold and I didn’t want to make any mistakes. The front tyre didn’t make me feel comfortable when braking. When I got some feeling in the front was when I pushed harder, and I thought that I could leave Maverick behind. But he stuck with me well. I let him pass, but he didn’t want to push on. With three laps to go, I made my move and tried to break away. I still wasn’t able to lose him, and on the last lap I had to cover my position. I managed to do so, up until the final set of corners when I braked too hard. By the time I went to open the gas again, he was overtaking me. I want to congratulate him on a great race. I am delighted with the job that the team did this weekend, but coming so close to victory leaves a bittersweet taste in your mouth. I took twenty important points for the standings, so now we should keep on working whilst our rivals get ever-closer.”
4th Héctor Faubel:
“I didn’t get a good start today. I kept the clutch in place and the bike was holding well, but for some reason the take-off was slow. I am not happy with the result, because I pushed for the whole race as part of the chasing pack and received little reward. With four laps to go I came into contact with another rider and went to the back of this group, so it was up to me to overtake them again. I was able to do so within three laps, but by then Vázquez had already opened up a gap in the fight for the podium. If I can take one positive thing from this race, it is that I was able to be competitive for the entire time. We were close to the podium, and we know that we can get there if we keep on fighting as we have been.”
14th Adrián Martín:
“It has been an almost perfect weekend. I knew that the most important thing was today’s race and I had the pace to be finishing high up the order. I had a good start, but as the race went on I noticed that my back wheel was sliding around a lot. I was losing grip whenever I opened the throttle, which gave me a few scares. It is a pity to have ended the weekend this was, but I hope that we can change this situation for the next race.”
Source: Aspar Media